𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 | draco malfoy [6]

𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈. TAMPERED MEMORIES AND TICKLED PEARS

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TAMPERED MEMORIES AND TICKLED PEARS

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The night after the night we returned to Hogwarts after the holiday, Dumbledore called Harry and I down to his office to see yet another memory. I met up with Harry near the entrance hall, and we made our way to his office.

Before Harry and I could say anything, when we walked in, Dumbledore's greeting was "I hear that you two met the Minister of Magic over Christmas?"

"Yes," Harry nodded. "He's not very happy with us."

"No, he is not very happy with me either." Dumbledore sighed.

"He wanted us to tell the Wizarding community that the Ministry's doing a spectacular job," I said bitterly.

"Yes, that was Fudge's idea originally. I think we can all agree it did not work," Dumbledore said, and Harry and I nodded.

"He accused us of being 'Dumbledore's man and woman through and through'," Harry told the headmaster.

"How very rude of him."

"We told him we were," Harry and I said together.

There was a moment of silence in which Harry and I quickly looked down at our feet, embarrassed.

"I am very touched, Harry, Giovanna," Dumbledore said, breaking the silence. When we looked up, I caught sight of his rather watery eyes.

He stood and walked over to the Pensieve, signaling it was time to get on with why Harry and I had really arrived at his office this evening.

"Now, this is perhaps the most important memory I've collected out of them all," Dumbledore told us grimly, "It has, however... well, you'll see."

He poured a vial of the silvery substance into the Pensieve, and Harry and I leaned down, entering the memory.

I instantly spotted an all-too familiar man by the name of Horace Slughorn. However, this Slughorn was around fifty years younger.

Slughorn was seated at a table with a group of boys that must've been the Slug Club of its time. I recognized Tom Riddle at once, his handsome features standing out against the others.

"Sir," Tom said, "Is it true that Professor Merrythought's retiring?"

"Tom, I couldn't tell you if I knew, could I?" Slughorn laughed a little. "By the way, thank you for the pineapple. You're quite right- it is my favorite. But how did you know?"

Young Riddle's face would've been a normal slight smirk, but I saw so much more within his eyes. He thought for a moment before settling on the word "Intuition."

Slughorn turned to look at the clock, which read that it was around eleven at night. "Good gracious! Is it that time already? Off you go, boys, or Professor Dippet will have us all in detention."